Nantucket Board of Appeals denies developer's notice of project change, cites fire and public-safety concerns

The Town of Nantucket Board of Appeals on April 14, 2025, voted 5-0 to deny the project as proposed in the applicant’s Notice of Project Change and authorized Chair Susan McCarthy to sign the written decision on the board’s behalf.

The board’s unanimous vote followed several hours of edits to a draft decision prepared by town counsel and extensive discussion about which pieces of testimony to include. George Pucci of KP Law, counsel to the board, described revisions he made to the draft and removed a law-review hypothetical that he said was not essential to the board’s findings. "The latest version I sent Billy is . . . a track change of the final version that was sent Friday that addresses those paragraphs," Pucci said during the meeting.

The nut graff: the decision summarizes the board’s conclusion that local safety concerns and other issues described in its findings outweigh the proposal as presented. Board members repeatedly pointed to testimony about a past large fire (the Veranda House incident), concerns that the island lacks immediate mutual-aid capacity for major emergencies, and statements from former fire department personnel as salient in reaching the denial.

In the body of the decision, the board added a paragraph crediting testimony from Beau Barber (a former firefighter who was present at the Veranda House response) and a retired deputy fire official, describing the board’s view that their accounts were compelling local evidence about emergency response challenges on the island. The board also incorporated language referencing expert testimony from a clinician who warned about hospital and medical-capacity issues in a large-scale emergency. Pucci said he deliberately avoided relying on testimony from former town employees in place of current department-head testimony but accommodated the board’s request to reflect what members found persuasive from the hearing record.

Board members discussed whether including testimony from former firefighters might create conflict with the current fire chief’s statements; several said they did not view those accounts as contradictory, but as complementary perspectives. "I don't think they're in conflict with each other. I just think they all made strong points," said Commissioner Jim Mondani during deliberations.

Members also debated, then added, a sentence noting "the lack of mutual aid available to the Island of Nantucket for major emergency events," reflecting the board’s concern that the island’s insular location limits rapid external emergency support.

Counsel and board members confirmed that testimony about affordable-housing need was considered but that the record did not contain new evidence sufficient to change the board’s prior findings on housing supply. The decision as drafted notes the town’s prior efforts and comments from the Affordable Housing Trust about reduced scale and additional buffering but does not identify new, definitive measures of current housing status.

After the board finalized edits to the draft decision on the record, Member Alisa Allen moved to deny the project as proposed in the Notice of Project Change and to authorize Chair Susan McCarthy to sign and issue the written decision. John Brescher seconded the motion. The roll-call vote was Alisa Allen, aye; John Brescher, aye; Lisa Botticelli, aye; Jim Mondani, aye; and Chair Susan McCarthy, aye. The chair announced, "The Board has voted 5 to 0, to deny the project as proposed in the notice of project change."

The motion included an explicit instruction authorizing staff to file the signed decision with the town clerk promptly; participants noted the practical need to file the document the same day. Counsel advised that the motion and the authorization to sign should be recorded in the decision text so the chair’s signature would effectuate filing without further action.

The board concluded its session with a motion to adjourn. The decision will be filed and made part of the public record; further procedural steps related to any appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee were discussed but no additional board action on appeals was taken at the meeting.

Ending: The board’s written decision, as authorized on the record, will be signed by Chair Susan McCarthy and filed with the town clerk; the board and counsel indicated that any appellate process will consider the record and the materials the board referenced in its findings.